The other day while on a walk with my wife, we were engaged in a conversation and ended up on the topic of social media. In particular, we were talking about our children and their use of social media. As we all know, technology, digital media, and social media are all very prevalent parts of the day-to-day lives of most teenagers. And while there are obvious benefits that come from technology and social media (e.g., entertainment, education, information, communication, etc.), there are also many pitfalls and traps that teens can fall into through their use of those technologies. There are increasing studies and research that have begun to show and highlight the dangers that can come to teens from overuse of and overinvolvement in social media (e.g., depression, anxiety, insecurities, social comparison, etc.). It is important for parents to take an active, assertive role in the monitoring of and boundaries around their children's use of social media. The following is a link to an interesting article on our national obsession with social media, as well as some food for thought with how involved we should be with our children's use of that technology.
Social Media... Our National Obsession
Mont Criddle, LMFT
